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Having lost all his appeals of his conviction for the 1981 murders of two children, former Old Forge resident Joseph Aulisio has turned his focus to helping other inmates by becoming a jailhouse lawyer.

Mr. Aulisio, 47, an inmate at State Correctional Institution Retreat in Hunlock Creek, was recently appointed as a law clerk to assist fellow inmates. But he claims his efforts have been thwarted by prison staff he says wrongfully seized paperwork that contained extensive research, according to a lawsuit he recently filed in federal court.

The lawsuit, which Mr. Aulisio wrote, alleges he was wrongly issued a misconduct after a prison employee seized two folders, including one that held a 74-page document containing hundreds of prison litigation cases, that he was reviewing in the prison's library in May 2012. The employee later returned one folder but allegedly destroyed the other folder, which held the legal research, the suit says.

Mr. Aulisio has been imprisoned since he was charged in July 1981 with the shotgun slayings of 8-year-old Cheryl Ziemba and her 4-year-old brother, Christopher Ziemba. He was 16 when he committed the crime.

Mr. Aulisio filed multiple appeals, all of which were denied. In 2012, he sought a new sentencing hearing based on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared sentences of life in prison without parole unconstitutional for juveniles. That hope was dashed in October, when the high court said its ruling does not apply to defendants who had already exhausted all their appeals.

In his federal lawsuit, Mr. Aulisio said he was using information contained in his files to study for a test he was required to take to qualify for his job as a law clerk. A prison employee seized the files after questioning if Mr. Aulisio was using the documents for his personal use, or for use in aiding another prisoner, the suit says.

Mr. Aulisio was issued a misconduct for possessing contraband based on the employee's belief the files were being used for personal research, which would violate the conditions of his employment as a law clerk, according to a document attached to the lawsuit. Mr. Aulisio disputes that finding, arguing that studying for a test for his position was a legitimate use of the files.

The lawsuit asks a judge to declare the contents of the folders were not contraband and to award him $350,000 to compensate for the destruction of his legal research, plus $350,000 in punitive and compensatory damages for violations of his civil rights.

Contact the writer: tbesecker@timesshamrock.com

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